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Strong Sales Of Samsung Smartwatch Bode Well For Apple

Samsung introduced the Galaxy Gear smartwatch with great fanfare in Berlin, Germany, on September 4, 2013,. It was Samsung’s opportunity to prove once and for all that it is not simply a copycat of Apple. Initial expectations were high.

As critics got hold of the smartwatch, they almost universally panned it. The chorus of negative criticisms got the loudest when New York Times columnist, David Pogue (Pogue has since left the Times) eloquently chimed in, “Nobody will buy this watch, and nobody should.”

In spite of a marketing push by Samsung, Galaxy Gear by all reports appeared to be a failure. As an example, on November 18, 2013, BusinessKorea reported, “this product has cumulative sales under 50,000, with daily sales of only 800-900 units. These low sales values for the Galaxy Gear are far below the initial expectations of the industry.”

On October 25, 2013, Geek.com reported, “Samsung has found that more than 30% of Galaxy Gear purchases are returned in Best BuyBest Buy locations, and they have asked that Samsung employees on site help try to figure out why this is.”

Yesterday was a shocker when Samsung announced that it had sold 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches in about two months. So much for reading the tea leaves from media reports and the wisdom of well-known critics! More surprising was a statement by Samsung that Galaxy Gear sales had exceeded its own internal expectations.

Samsung now plans to increase promotions for the smartwatch during the holiday selling season.

I had not done the work to have an estimate of my own for Galaxy Gear sales and was mostly relying on the estimates of others which were significantly lower than the 800,000 number. However, in my view the 800,000 number is even more shocking than it first appears on the surface. The reason is that until recently Galaxy Gear smartwatch worked only with Galaxy Note 3.

Note 3 is the latest phablet from Samsung. For the most part, Galaxy Gear smartwatch is not a stand-alone device but an accessory to another main mobile device. Although Galaxy Note 3 is a popular device, it is not a mainstream device like the Galaxy S4 or the iPhone 5S. Only recently Samsung has announced support for Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Round, Galaxy S4 LTE-A, and Galaxy S3 LTE.

Opinions aside, the data speak loudly – 800,000 consumers have been willing to shell out about $300 each for a new wearable device that at best is awkward, not user-friendly, poorly implemented, and does not work well. I can draw only one inference, consumers are ready in large numbers for a smartwatch that is user friendly and works well.

In his review of Galaxy Gear smartwatch, David Pogue wrote, “But there’s something here under all the rubble. Sometimes the Gear can be liberating; sometimes it makes possible tasks that you can’t do while you’re holding a smartphone. I just need somebody to find the right balance of labor between the watch and its companion device — to figure out what a smartwatch should and shouldn’t be.”

I have the answer and so do many consumers that the ‘somebody’ is Apple. Who do we know that is better than Apple at implementing consumer devices in a user-friendly, elegant manner?

Strong Samsung smartwatch sales are very positive for an eventual introduction of an Apple iWatch. Chatter suggests that one is coming soon.

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You need to do a little more homework, and get your facts straight…..they haven’t sold 800,000 to consumers. They shipped 800,000 units to retailers…..now the retailers are stuck trying to sell something that doesn’t seem to be the ‘next big thing’.

I thought the headline was a misprint but the author actually believes Samsung actually sold 800,000 watches. Guess again. They shipped 800,000 but according to one of their senior executives they only sold 50,000 or 800-900 per day.

Even with all Samsung’s saturation advertising, their watch is so far an utter failure.

Its embarrassing that a reporter cannot get the facts straight, shipped as oppose to sales mean totally different things. You can ship the trashy watch, but it doesn’t mean anything if no one is buying them. It’s just a marketing gimmick by the classless Samdung company. I would be embarrassed owing anything made by Samsung.

One other Smart watch to launch this week is the Z-Watch from SmartQ Devices– SmartQ won a distinguished 2013 CTIA E-Tech Award for the world’s first tablet with a built in DLP projector and is now offering an innovative smartwatch that compares to Sony’s Smart watch 2 and the Galaxy Smart watch ($200-$300) with comparable features, but is priced about the same as the Pebble Watch ($150) —

The new SmartQ Z-Watch has one of the highest screen resolutions and largest battery capacities of all models available, with an energy efficient processor running at a full 1GHz (Sony & Pebble Watch in comparison run at less than 200 MHz, which means less responsive performance.)

One of the first U.S. sources with details on the SmartQ device is TabletSprint

The author stated that, “Yesterday was a shocker when Samsung announced that it had sold 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatches in about two months.”

Not a shocker at all, Nigam. Samsung is well known for press releases that misdirect or prevaricate. Why would you willingly repeat their nonsense here? See the update to the theverge DOT com article on this subject.

Furthermore, of those units that actually sold, over 30% are being returned by buyers.

Nigam, i would suggest to you to verify the figure. Samsung claimed it was actually SHIPPED, not sold. Furthermore I read some advertisement they are giving out smartwatch for free if you purchase their note3. Again, I hardly believe ppl willing to spend $300 for ugly watch with limited functions. Quoted from wallstreet journal “The company said in a statement that it had sold more than 800,000 units of the smartwatch since its launch in early September. However, when contacted, the company clarified that its figure refers to shipments to retailers and carriers, not the amount sold to consumers. So the actual sell-through figure, which Samsung isn’t releasing, could be much lower.”

Big mistake, as everyone as said the figure is numbers shipped not sold. Second mistake is like their galaxy tab 3 a lot of them are just being bundled with the phones they are selling. This means they may technically have been purchased but definitely not at full retail price and sometimes not even intentionally.